RIMS REPORT - The Pre-Mortem Method: Learning From Failure Without Actually Failing

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March 17, 2025

New York (March 17, 2025) – Unlike post-mortem analysis, a pre-mortem risk assessment attempts to learn from failure before a project even begins, according to RIMS new Executive Report titled, “The Pre-Mortem Method: Learning From Failure Without Actually Failing.”

Authored by RIMS Strategic and Enterprise Risk Management Council members Denise Sobczak and Michael Zuraw, the report highlights the advantages of implementing a pre-mortem risk assessment approach to strategic projects. The report also provides three steps for risk professionals to activate a pre-mortem assessment that fosters a better understanding of a project’s overall objectives, and ultimately improves transparency, communication, and business outcomes.

“While companies put a lot of resources and effort into strategic initiatives, research shows that such projects fail at alarming rate,” the report notes. “The pre-mortem method can be applied to strategic projects by first assuming failure, then identifying the triggers of that failure, and developing plans to avoid or mitigate them to achieve success.”

The “The Pre-Mortem Method: Learning From Failure Without Actually Failing” executive report is exclusively available to RIMS members only for the next 60 days. To download the report, visit RIMS Risk Knowledge library at www.RIMS.org/RiskKnowledge. For information about RIMS wide selection of risk management publications, learning experiences and events, visit www.RIMS.org.

About RIMS
RIMS, the risk management society®️, empowers risk professionals to make the world safer, more secure, and more sustainable. Through networking, professional development, certification, advocacy, and research, RIMS and its 80 chapters serves more than 200,000 risk practitioners and business leaders from over 75 countries. Founded in 1950, the Society publishes the award-winning Risk Management Magazine and produces RISKWORLD®️, the largest annual gathering of global risk professionals. RIMS embraces diversity, equity and inclusion and welcomes all risk professionals to connect and learn, explore the online Risk Knowledge library, tune into the RIMScast podcast series, and engage via social media. To learn more, visit https://www.RIMS.org.

For more information, contact:

Josh Salter, Director of Communications, (212) 655-6059 or JSalter@rims.org

About RIMS

As the preeminent organization dedicated to promoting the profession of risk management, RIMS, the risk management society®, is a global not-for-profit organization representing more than 3,500 industrial, service, nonprofit, charitable and government entities throughout the world. Founded in 1950, RIMS is committed to advancing risk management capabilities for organizational success, bringing networking, professional development and education opportunities to its membership of more than 10,000 risk management professionals who are located in more than 60 countries. For more information on RIMS, visit www.RIMS.org

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